Tim Preso, managing attorney of the Earthjustice Northern Rockies office, has been working to defend the wolf population in the region for more than a decade. In a teleconference, he discusses the background, history and perspective to Earthjustice’s decades-long fight to protect the endangered gray wolf.

The tragic delisting of Wyoming’s gray wolves from the Endangered Species List has many wildlife defenders up in arms, and with sound reason: the removal of protections for the wolves marks an end to many years of successful recovery efforts of a species that was once on the verge of extinction.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service chose a blue moon to announce the delisting of the gray wolf in Wyoming, which will take effect in one month. Is it because a blue moon is also called the “betrayer moon,” or perhaps it’s just before a holiday weekend and they are hoping most won’t notice?